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Thomas William Parsons
Thomas William Parsons (August 18, 1819 - September 3, 1892)Underwood, F.H., Builders of American literature, 1893 was an American poet and a translator of Dante. Life Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Parsons was educated at the Boston Latin School. He visited Italy to study the Italian language and literature in 1836-1837. In 1840, at the age of 21, he became proprietor of the Boston Atheneum. He published his most famous original poem, "On a Bust of Dante," in the Boston Advertister at age 22.Tricia Patterson, "Thomas William Parsons, Boston Atheneum, January 2013. Web, Sep. 2, 2018. His translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, which eventually comprised all the Inferno, 2/3 of the Purgatorio, and fragments of the Paradiso,Hart, J.D., Oxford companion to American literature, 1941 began to appear in 1843.Drake, F. S., Dictionary of American biography, 1870 After practicing dentistry in Boston, he lived for several years in England before returning to Boston in 1872. Appleton's cyclopaedia of American biography, 6 vols, 1888 He was a contributor to The Galaxy and The Atlantic Monthly. In 1857 he married Anna (or Hannah) M. Allen (1821-1881). On her death in 1881, he wrote and privately circulated 4 poems to her memory, including "Into the Noiseless Country." He died of apoplexy during a stroke in Scituate, Massachusetts, where he was being cared for by a nurse, and was found dead in a well. Recognition Parsons received an honorary A.M. degree from Harvard in 1853."Historical Note," [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01270 Parsons, Thomas William, 1819-1892. Papers: Guide.] Houghton Library, Harvard College Library. Harvard.edu, Web, Sep. 11, 2011. His incomplete translation of Dante's Divine Comedy was published in full posthumously in 1893, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, and with a memorial sketch by Louise Imogen Guiney. In popular culture Parsons is said to have served as the model for "The Poet" in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn." Publications Poetry *''Poems. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1854. *The Rosary. Cambridge, MA: J. Wilson, 1865. *The Magnolia. Cambridge, MA: J. Wilson, 1866. *The Shadow of the Obelisk, and other poems. London: Hatchard's, 1872. *The Willey House, and sonnets. Boston: J. Wilson, 1875. *[http://archive.org/details/odefordedication00parsrich ''Ode for the Dedication of the Bunker Hill Tablets (]pamphlet). [1889? Translated *Dante Alighieri, The First Ten Cantos of the Inferno. Boston: privately printed by W.D. Ticknor, 1843. *''The First Canticle, Inferno, of the Divine Comedy. Boston: DeVries, Ibarra, 1867. *The Ante-Purgatorio. London: Hatchards, 1876. *The Divine Comedy(edited by Charles Eliot Norton; with memorial sketch by Louise Imogen Guiney). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1893. Letters *''Letters (edited by Zoltán Haraszti & Austin Warren). Boston: Public Library, 1940. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Thomas William Parsons, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 19, 2013. Poems by Thomas William Parsons #A Song for September See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"A Song for September " *"On a Bust of Dante" *"Dirge" *Parsons in the Yale Book of American Verse: "On a Bust of Dante," "Mary Booth," "Her Epitaph," "Obituary," "Paradisi Gloria," "Saint Peray," " *Parsons in An American Anthology: "On a Bust of Dante," "Dirge," "Mary Booth," "Her Epitaph," "To a Young Girl Dying," "Into the Noiseless Country," "Andrew," "Obituary," "To a Lady," "Like as the Lark," "O Ye Sweet Heavens," "{https://www.bartleby.com/248/401.html Paradisi Gloria] ;Books *Thomas William Parsons at Amazon.com * ;About *Thomas William Parsons at Boston Atheneum Category:1819 births Category:1892 deaths Category:American dentists Category:American poets Category:Italian–English translators Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets Category:Authors Category:19th-century authors Category:American authors